Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A Russian court on Tuesday reserved its verdict till tomorrow on the
ban on a translated version of the Bhagvad Gita for being extremist, a
case that drew a flurry of criticism from Hindus across the world.

"The case has been postponed till tomorrow. The final verdict will be
given tomorrow," Sadhu Priya Das of Moscow ISKCON told PTI.

State
prosecutors in the Siberian city of Tomsk, who had filed the petition,
have branded the test as "extremist" literature full of hatred and
insult to non-believers, which promoted social discord.

Das said the ISKCON members are hopeful of a favourable verdict.

"However we can't say anything. We have a very strong legal team and our case is strong," he said.

Brajendra
Nandan, director ISKCON media communication in India, said, "The
hearing lasted for 15 minutes and and the court would take up the matter
tomorrow."

On December 28, a court in the Siberian city of Tomsk
had rejected a petition seeking a ban on the translated version of
Bhagvad Gita, a verdict which was welcomed by India as a sensible
resolution of a sensitive issue.

Tomsk Region Prosecutor General
Vasily Voikin has now demanded that "a Russian translation of a comment
in this book, earlier published in English, be banned as extremist, not
the canonical text of the scripture."

The original petition
seeking a ban on the translated version of the holy scripture was filed
in June 2011 and the trial prompted sharp reactions from across the
world.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna had asked the Russian government to help resolve the issue quickly.

Bhagavat Gita was first published in Russia in 1788 and since then it has been republished many times in various translations.

The controversial Russian translation of Bhagavad Gita: As It Is was
carried out by founder of the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON) AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The book was
translated into more than 60 languages.